Improvement in hose-bridges



UNITED STATES LAFAYETTE W. HODGES, OF WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA.

,IMPROVEMENT IN HOSE-BRIDGES.

Specification forming part of Letters Batent No. 126,635, dated May 14, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

. ed up.

N attore.

My invention relates to a hose-bridge, designed for lire companies, to protect the hose from injury, when in-us'e, in being passed over by horses, wagons, or other vehicles; and con-` sists of tapered cross-beams covered with plank and provided with a hose-chamber or cavity having a hinged lid; and the bridge, also, is

1 hinged and provided with suitable fastenings,

so as to be'folded and held in a folded position to be conveniently handled, transported, or set aside when not in use.V

B represents the cross-beams, theinner ends of which are above tive and three-fourths (5%) inches wide, made with cavitiesforming the hose-chamber G, andtapered from near th edge of the cavities to thin edges at the other ends, as shown in Fig. 2. C represents the bridgeiioor or covering, of plank of suitable thickness v and length, ordinarily about one and a quarter (13;) inch thick and about eight (8) feet long, fastened by nails or screws to the cross-beams. L represents the lid of the hose-chamber, hinged to one side of the bridge covering. The beams of the two sides of the bridge are made separate, and the inner ends of one side attached to the inner ends of the other side by the hinges h, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, so as to allow the bridge to be folded up, as seen in Fig. 3, in which position it is held by the fastening d, to be conveniently set aside when not in use, and conveyed, when required, to the place where it is to be used. It is then opened out, as shown in Fig. 1, with the lid open to receive the hose H,-which is then readily placed in the hosechainber and is securely covered and protected by the hinged lid, as seen in Fig; 2.

Each bridge may be provided with several hose-chambers, either in the center, under one lid, or on each side, and provided with separate lids.

o Claim.

I claim a hinged hose-.bridge having ahosechamber, C, and a hinged lid, L, substantially as described. t

In attestation of the foregoing specification of my improved hose-bridge I hereto subscribe my name in the presence of two witnesses.

LAFAYETTE W. HODGES.

Witnesses:

J os. W. RowELL, WM. H. DAY. 

